Q: I'm done home educating. What do I need to do?
----
A: You'll need to send documents (a Letter of Termination and an evaluation) to the school district and it is smart to have paperwork ready for the school, college, employer, etc. in your child's future.

(1) Per Florida law, you'll need to send a Notice of Termination (also called a Letter of Termination) to the school district to let them know that your child is done homeschooling regardless of whether you are sending your child to a school, moving out of state, or graduating your child. (This Letter of Termination is to be sent within 30 days of finishing homeschooling, though you'll likely want to send it in as soon as you are done if you want to start the enrollment process at a school. If you are enrolling your child in a k-12 school in the fall, it's best to wait until after the end of the public school's school year to send the Letter of Termination so the district won't expect the child to be enrolled for the remainder of the current school year.)

Note: If your child is on Florida's Family Empowerment Scholarship: Unique Abilities (the scholarship for students with special needs that was previously known as the Gardiner), the scholarship must be informed when ending your homeschooling. Emailing the Letter of Termination to the school district and cc'ing the scholarship on that email is a way to do this.

(2) An evaluation must be submitted within 30 days of this Letter of Termination. This final evaluation is the same as any other evaluation but is due within 30 days of the Letter of Termination even if your ordinary evaluation deadline (based on the anniversary of your Letter of Intent) is not yet here. This evaluation verifies that your child ended homeschooling successfully.

If your child is being enrolled in public school, most districts will require you to turn in a Letter of Termination before enrolling the child. (Private schools set their own rules, so contact them to find out the documentation they will want to see.)

The school may ask to see a copy of the evaluation. Or they might contact the district's Home Education Liaison in order to confirm that a positive evaluation was received. With a positive evaluation, the child should be placed in the grade expected for the child's age--rather than back a grade level. The school might also ask to see a copy of the child's portfolio, though if you provide a report card or transcript that's usually all they need.

Florida public schools will place students according to their Pupil Progression Plan which basically places students according to their age as long as a passing evaluation is on record. A few schools may require a placement test, especially for those entering first grade level because their accreditation agency requires it.

(3) Make records for the next school, college, employer, etc.
We recommend that parents type a transcript in order to smooth the process of enrolling a child in school, though a report card may be sufficient for some schools. You can find free sample report cards and/or transcripts online. (There are lots of styles because schools use a wide variety of styles. Don't worry about the style. Just pick one.) Online templates will allow you to just fill in the appropriate information. There are even templates for high school transcripts, available for a fee, that can be sent to high schools or colleges via the same electronic clearinghouse that many high schools use.

Didn't keep grades? That's okay. Most homeschooling families don't because they focus more on learning than on assigning letter or number grades.
So, how do you figure out report card (or transcript) grades if you didn't grade individual assignments? You think holistically about your student's work over the course of the year. Did your student struggle a lot with the material or use material that was below the grade level expected for your child's age? Then you'll want to assign C's or D's (or F's if your child really needs to be placed at a lower grade level--though you'll want to discuss this with the evaluator). Did your student excel or use material that was above the grade level expected for your child's age? Then you'll want to assign A's or A+'s. And so on. The point of the grades is to let the school know whether your child will need extra help or remediation or whether your child will need enrichment and more challenges.

What if your child took some classes from a program that assigns grades such as FLVS, dual enrollment college courses, Acellus Power Homeschool, or some other program? Your report card or transcript should reflect all the classes that you accepted as part of your student's education. Include those classes and their grades on your documentation, but you may want to put an asterisk by the course name and elsewhere note the source of the classes. In addition, you may want to also provide a copy of the grades directly from the source to the school or college that the student is enrolling in.

Florida public schools are required to accept documentation parents give them as long as the child passes the first grading period in school. Of course, be sure that the documentation accurately reflects what the child has learned, so you aren't setting your child up for failure. (Florida public schools place students by age rather than curriculum levels used. A report card or transcript won't change the grade level at which a school places a student, but it can help with registering the child and placing appropriately in either remedial, regular, or advanced classes. The school cannot require the FSA in order to enroll in a public school.)

Transcripts can record high school credits earned, and must be accepted by a Florida public high school as long as the student passes the first grading period in their school. But the student will likely have to eventually take the EOC (end of course) exams in Algebra 1, Biology, and/or Geometry to finalize credits in those subjects, so the student can graduate from a Florida public high school; the EOC exam scores are used to determine a percentage of the student's final grade in those classes per current Florida law. However, if your student took the math portion of tests like the SAT or ACT, those scores can be used in place of EOC math scores.

Let me know if we can help with the final evaluation.

Cheryl Trzasko
Cheryl@FLHomeschoolEvaluations.com

Note: 17 years after graduating from high school, Cheryl had graduated from college, worked on a graduate degree program, and had many years of career experience when a potential employer wanted to see her high school transcript. We always advise creating a transcript and other documents that might be needed in the future. See our page on high school graduation for more information.

Finished Home Educating?

Submit to the district within 30 days:

Letter of Termination

Evaluation

Prepare for your child:

Transcript

and/or

Report Card

Note: Transcripts are especially recommended for high school (including for middle school if high school classes were completed during middle school).
Report cards are fine for younger students, though many parents choose to use both documents for their children.

Finished high school?

Additional Documents

Students who have finished high school should have, in addition to a transcript, a list of course descriptions, a diploma, and an affidavit of completion. See our pages on graduation for more information.

Some students may not need these to get into college, but some will need them in the future. Preparing them now can prevent issues in the future.

Sample Transcript

This shows the front and reverse sides of a sample high school transcript with an Affidavit of Completion included on the transcript. (The Affidavit of Completion can be a separate document. It is the official proof of high school graduation for a home education student.)

Course numbers on this sample were taken from the Florida Dept of Education's list of official course titles. Home education students don't have to use their courses, but using their course numbers makes it easier for colleges or high schools to identify the classes taken. If the public schools have no class similar to one your child took, look for the "transfer credit" number for the academic subject area.

A  transcript should ideally be one page--no more than front and back of a page, though front only is ideal. Activities, awards, and other achievements can be displayed here.

More details on Transcripts

Q: Can a Florida public high school reject my child's transcript?

A: A Florida public high school, under the Florida Uniform Transfer of Credit Rule, should accept the paperwork from a homeschool parent as long as the student then passes the first grading period in the school.

Note that guidance counselors are not always familiar with this rule and may need to be educated on it. This website can help:

https://www.flhef.org/transfer-of-credit-rule/


This FAQ page from the Florida Dept of Education should help educate guidance counselors:

https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7562/urlt/2021TransferofCreditsFAQs.pdf

NOTE: Every year we are contacted by untrained guidance counselors looking for transcripts or report cards or other documentation from us rather than from parents. When enrolling a child in school, give the school a report card or transcript--even if someone in the office says it's not needed--to avoid a panicked search for records later.

Moving out of Florida? Graduating High School?

The process described above (with a Letter of Termination and final evaluation) is the same process to be done if your child is finished homeschooling because of moving out of state, transferring to a public or private school, or graduating high school.

If your student is graduating high school, see our pages on high school or high school graduation for information on other documents smart parents will keep for their students (course descriptions, transcript, diploma, Affidavit of Completion) and other pertinent information including information on the Bright Futures scholarship.